Great Tournament! That is the conclusion I take from many
of the comments heard at the convention, such as these. "This
is the best game of Advanced Civilization that I have
ever played." This game is a lot better than the ones we
play at home." I really like this well organized tournament."
"I am going to play both days since I am having so much
fun." "Joe, you did a good job as GM."

The 2004 tournament filled 42 positions with 37 different
players, 23 in heat 1, 19 in heat 2 and five repeaters. These
numbers allowed us to have three games in each heat. A historical
perspective on the participation in this tournament can be seen
in the following table. The increase in the number of players
in the tournament is a welcome sight.

This year, I changed a few of the rules. Seating was changed
from a semi-random assignment based on skill level to a random
assignment to a designated table. A few trade cards were added
to the lower numbered decks to help expedite trading, since this
year the optional rule of purchasing from any deck was discontinued.
Those players with more than two calamities after trading were
required to discard calamities for which their nation was immune
prior to selecting the calamities by which their nation was affected.
This rule was intended to spread out the calamities a little
more and did not have a noticeable effect in the three games
which I played. Lastly, the kicker or bonus score for each player
was intended to measure the efficiency of an empire and was equal
to 18/nation average city count.

One of the things I appreciate about playing Advanced Civilization
is the somewhat absurd and funny comments made by the players
during the game. These comments seem to abound in this type of
long lasting multi-player games that require a lot of player
interaction combined with physical, mental and emotional fatigue.
Here are some of the comments that made me laugh this year. "I
will only trade for a pair of gems" (stated when the nations
first reached five cities). "Thank God, I only got Civil
Disorder." "Talk to me when you want that 245 point
set." "No matter what you do, sacking one of my cities
will not make me happy."

The championship game this year had a few new faces which
made for a more interesting game and provided some uncertainty
for those players frequently in the final. The game started with
the typical negotiations for territory and rapid expansion. Africa
successfully negotiated for control of Sicily. Iberia negotiated
for control of Rome and Babylon for control of most of the Levant.
Crete decided to expand eastward towards Turkey before going
to the Peloponnesus. Early in the mid-game, Babylon decided to
take a more aggressive position by purchasing military. Babylon
based the decision on the wisdom of their financial advisor who
noted the balance of trade was not balanced in favor of Babylon.
Several other nations purchased military in response to the aggressiveness
of Babylon. The purchase of military by Babylon changed the nature
of the game to one of peaceful trade to one of sporadic warfare.
Those nations that were closest to Babylon or who did not purchase
military, Egypt, Thrace and Illyria, became the unwilling victims
to the pillaging and looting of their cities from other players.
In the later part of the game, Africa and Iberia became the noticeable
leaders in the race for national supremacy. Babylon organized
attacks on Africa followed by attacks on Iberia to try and stop
the advance of these nations. The multi-national attack on the
exposed coastline of Africa took its toll and delayed its advancement.
Iberia proved a more formidable opponent to the voracious enemy
hordes. Iberia fought the warmongers to a standstill on their
heavily fortified and well defended shore and continued to advance
their civilization to the winning position. Congratulations to
Harold Henning for his excellent play as the stalwart leader
of the Iberian people.

The Advanced Civilization Tournament this year had a better
distribution of winning nations. This year differed from 2003
when the winning positions were equally split between Iberia
and Babylon. The following table gives you a detailed summary
of the final position of each nation in each game.

Expect a few changes to the 2005 tournament which primarily
will be based on feedback from players. Seating assignment will
be totally random for all players including those that bring
their own game. The kicker or bonus score will be a measure of
"robustness" of a nation and will be related to the
number, type, and severity of calamities endured by a nation.
Also, players will turn in a score sheet with all the calculations
completed to expedite answering the most often heard question
"Am I in the final". And, lastly, I hope that next
year will see the return of some old stalwarts of this tournament,
Joe Lux with his new winning strategy, Charlie Hickock a previous
GM and Eric Gundersen, a previous champion.

This
year the record for best historian goes to Kevin Brownell. His
history of the ancient world was the most colorful and is rendered
here for your appraisal.

Iberia and Assyria were the first to build cities in Rome
and Sinope. Tensions building between Assyria and Babylon. Crete
opts to occupy the Peloponnesus.War occurs between Assyrian and
Babylon in Antioch. Assyria wins. City building explosion in
Egypt and Babylon. Babylon buys engineering as his first advance
but is two behind on the AST. End of the early Bronze Age see
deadly calamities. Barbarians ravage Iberia, famine strikes Assyria,
epidemic in Babylon, flood in Egypt and civil disorder in Thrace.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth was heard throughout the lands.

Iberia suffers civil war in 800 B.C. with a large Babylonian
faction taking over large portion of Italy. Once again epidemic
spreads from Thrace which also suffers a flood. Assyria has finally
restored his civilization after a disastrous series of calamities.
After a burst of civilization in Babylon which saw them reach
1000 points, a disastrous civil disorder and iconoclasm left
every city but one in ruins. Only Jericho didn't fall down, how
ironic.

500 B.C. saw the great battle of Miletus in which a huge Assyrian
army sacked the Cretan city and put its citizens to the sword.
Babylon demonstrated its resilience by increasing by eight cities
in one turn with the help of the Egyptian civil war. Assyria
attacks the Thracian city of Byzantium preventing the rebuilding
of a city. In 350 B.C. Thrace counterattacks Troy and sacked
it in the Trojan War. Assyria attempted to sack Moesia but were
defeated in a battle outside the city. The brutal assault on
Thrace was unleashed with every nation participating. Several
cities were sacked but Thrace survived and ran out the AST. With
a huge last buy of advances Babylon came with 780 points of cards
to win over Thrace by 300 points.